The Curious Couple
by Theatregirls2317
Summary: Just a small Hannibal/Fairy one-shot that takes place immediately after the play The Curious Savage ends.
As he heard the car drive off in the distance, he slowly turned back to the door. All of his friends were outside, with the exception of the one he had just lost. He couldn't think about that though. This was the exact reason they didn't say goodbye. It made them feel way worse than they had before. Making up his mind to forget, he left the empty room, carrying his violin with him. Maybe he could help ease the pain a bit this way.

Florence and Jeff were chatting softly out by their plots. Florence's gentle laugh aroused a smile from Mrs. Paddy. There was one face missing, however, and it just so happened to be the one he wanted to see the most. After a few minutes of searching, he found her sitting underneath a tree very far away from the rest of the other guests.

"Fairy?" he called softly. She looked up a little startled. He was surprised to see the tears streaming down her small face. For all the years he had known her, he had never seen her cry before. He suspected she did it in her room in private, as back and forth as she was with her emotions. "I didn't know she meant THAT much to you. I thought you didn't like goodbyes?"

She shook her head and wiped her eyes. "Nevermind, Hannibal. I'm alright."

For perhaps the first time ever, he really looked at his friend. Her big, bright, brilliant eyes were etched with pain. Her face looked like a wilted flower, her body slumped over like a cake left in the rain for much too long. The woman who looked perpetually like a child suddenly looked aged well beyond her years. The girl who talked in extravagant lies had built up a wall to protect herself from the horror of reality.

"What happened to you, Fairy?"

Her pink lips quivered as she bent herself up into a ball. "Mrs. Savage doesn't want me. Nobody wants me. My mommy died and left me. My daddy did some mean things to me and decided he didn't want me anymore. Then some people took me, but none of them wanted me either. I never stayed with them for long before they gave me up again. And then I came here and Florence already has a baby and she doesn't want me, she only chastises me. Then Mrs. Savage came and I thought she would want me but she didn't and she left and nobody wants me. I'm all alone around people and that's the worst thing about it."

His practical heart broke in half. The tears had begun streaming down her face again as he gently pulled her into his embrace. "I want you, Fairy. I want you now and I always will. In fact, I NEED you. Here. With me. You don't have to be alone, if you'll only let me in."

She crumpled in his arms, her tears streaming harder. "Do you mean that, Hannibal?"

He began stroking her hair gently. "I do, Fairy May. I love you. I mean it. You're family, but you're more than family to me. I love you in every way possible. You're my person," he said blushing deeply as words poured out of him that he hadn't known were there. She didn't see though. She had tucked herself as close to him as humanly possible.

"I love you too, Hannibal. I love you most of all. You're my person too."

After a few moments of silence, she asked the question that had been burning on both of their minds. "What happens now?"

He mulled it over in his mind for a brief moment before answering her. "Well, I suppose eventually we might leave and maybe get married if you'd like that. But the time it'd take us to save up for something like that is a few more years. You know, if we got out of here and went straight to work. But I think for now, I'm happy here in this moment existing with you. So what do you say we just stay here for a while until we figure things out. Maybe we could even talk to Mrs. Savage and see what her fund can do. It IS for foolish people after all. How does that sound?"

She smiled her normal youthful smile. "I'd like that very much."

"Come, Fairy. Let's go back to the others before they notice we are missing."

He helped her up and they walked back to the gardens hand in hand, two broken souls mending each other.


End file.
